


Gone in a Flash

by turntechClockwork



Category: Animator vs. Animation (Short Film 2006)
Genre: Angst, Blatant disregard for several minecraft physics, Could be read as any ship or as all platonic, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Other, Parkour, Temporary Character Death, They get better, i tried to include moments for each of them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:13:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28109895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turntechClockwork/pseuds/turntechClockwork
Summary: "In a tangle of flailing limbs and surprised shouts, Red crashes into all three of them and together, the four all pitch off the side of the platform and down to the desktop below.Orange, on his chair, startles with the dreaded intuition of "oh-no-something-bad-is-happening" and wakes up to the commotion, just in time to get a great view of his four friends hitting the groundhard.He winces as they all disappear from sight in a puff."-----After a parkour mishap, Red, Yellow, Blue and Green allshouldrespawn back on the sticksfight page like they always did. Though, with Flash growing outdated all across the internet, their original home in the black and white box seems to have shut down. Orange is, to say the least,worried.
Relationships: Blue Stick Figure & Green Stick Figure & Red Stick Figure & Yellow Stick Figure & The Second Coming
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	Gone in a Flash

**Author's Note:**

> hello! i wrote a stick fic!! <3 could be read as polysticks, any relationships, or totally platonic! i hope you enjoy <3

"Ack! Green!" Red yelps, calling fruitlessly after Green as he sprints past.

"Parkour!" Green shouts back in response, hopping ahead to the next block.

He had just come through, bounding past the others. His dizzying speed to the next parkour blocks caused Red to land his jump off-balance and topple over. He scrambles slightly on the pink wool block until Blue takes his hand and tugs him up on the next platform with a grunt, "C'mon, up you go. You okay?"

Red takes a breath and laughs for a second, dusting himself off, "Yeah, no, I'm okay, thank you! Don't think I'd be able to catch up with Green if I fell now."

Already, Green was a number of blocks ahead, turning cartwheels and backflips to the next blocks, swinging his fishing pole and using it to fly through the air, catching and yanking himself back up in big swooping arcs. He was almost showing off at this point, though the other sticks couldn't hold any bad feelings against him when they heard his joyful whoops and laughs of delight.

"Don't worry, there's a redstone puzzle I built up ahead, he'll have to pause to solve it. We've got a fighting chance to catch up if I've got anything to say about it." Yellow assures confidently, hopping to an orange block ahead of them.

They were getting pretty high up now. The desktop floor was growing ever-more distant underneath them, and with it, Orange was as well. When they invited him to test the parkour Yellow had created along with them, he had kindly declined, content to simply watch them. He sat, reclined on his beach chair below, half watching and cheering them on, and half dozing off. The four above each wave at him from time to time whenever they catch sight of him down below, Red especially so.

Yellow watches with a slight smirk as Green swings up to the puzzle ahead and is forced to pause. He takes a leap before turning around to his fellow primary colors, "I'm going to pop ahead. You guys'll be fine, right?"

Red catches himself on the orange block Yellow had recently vacated and gives a happy little thumbs up.

"Go ahead," Blue says, waving him off with a salute, "We'll meet you there."

Yellow tosses a peace sign and quickly jumps along. He's not particularly flashy like Green was, but he makes up for it in perfectly calculated precision. After building and testing every jump, he'd gained the skill that came with a sense of familiarity, knowing the route by heart. His distance grows further from Red and Blue, and shortens between himself and Green. He cups a hand to his mouth and singsongs, "I'm catching up, Green~!"

Green seems much less surprised and a lot more begrudgingly relieved, "Oh, _thank Alan,_ get over here, I can't figure this out." Green motions to him and then towards the redstone puzzle Yellow had created.

Yellow sighs, jokingly and teasingly overdramatic, "Well, maybe-" A jump, "- if you had just-" A quick hop and a ladder climb, "- payed more attention in my-" a last leap and Yellow lands beside Green on his platform, "- redstone classes!"

"You're too smart with your contraptions. We can't all be redstone geniuses like you, Yellow." Green comments sincerely, as he eyes the mechanisms in the puzzle.

"Aw, well _hey._ " Yellow grins happily at the compliment, giving Green a gentle punch on the shoulder.

Green laughs, punching back, "Alright, Teach', I've got the redstone torch here, am I doing it right?"

"So far? Yes, but the tricky part comes after that." Yellow grins slyly. He watches Green try different redstone implements, offering vague little hints and suggestions while they stand on the platform.

Red and Blue make their way across the map in the meantime, getting closer with every jump. Red stumbles on occasion in his want to excitedly rush ahead. Blue patiently matches pace with Red throughout, watching and casually going to assist whenever he needed a hand back up. He snacks on netherwart in between jumps and offers little encouragements, "You've got it. A bit slower for this one."

Red nods with a look of determination. Blue jumps first, landing steadily and climbing halfway on the next ladder jump in preparation for Red. He hangs languidly from the ladder rungs and motions for Red to follow.

Red wastes no time, hopping after him, stumbling only a little, waving his arms and reeling backwards until his feet find purchase on the block. He throws his arms in the air in celebratory glee, and from his casual hang from the ladder, Blue throws an arm up as well.

"Last jump. Don't overshoot." Blue warns cautiously. He climbs up the ladder and gracefully joins the two others on the puzzle platform with a short jump.

Red nods as seriously as he can manage at the moment (which wasn't particularly serious), giving a playful salute as he climbed the ladder. At the top, he takes a deep breath, ready to make the quick little hop.

Green blinks from the puzzle, noticing the new arrivals. He turns to Red and offers a peace sign. Red brightens with a large smile, waving back enthusiastically. Excited to make it over, he bounces on a foot, springs forward and leaps...

And overshoots.

In a tangle of flailing limbs and surprised shouts, Red crashes into all three of them and together, the four all pitch off the side of the platform and down to the desktop below.

Orange, on his chair, startles with the dreaded intuition of "oh-no-something-bad-is-happening" and wakes up to the commotion, just in time to get a great view of his four friends hitting the ground _hard._

He winces as they all disappear from sight in a puff.

In the moments following disasters much like this one, there's always the feeling of shock and the slight twinge of fear to plague Orange, but it usually fades into a sense of exasperation. With Minecraft's helpful option to respawn, death became much less of a threat and more an inconvenience to the sticks.

With a groan, Orange rolls lazily out of his chair with a thud onto the ground. His face gracefully meets the ground, just above the computer's time and date. He pushes himself to stand while glancing down at it.

4 AM on an early January day. Orange smiles as he recalls Yellow claiming this parkour map as his 2021 New Year's resolution to make something that didn't fall flat due to minecraft physics. He still regrets the failed ending of his carefully crafted minecart rollercoaster, despite all of the reassurances from the other sticks.

He wonders if the other sticks had any resolutions as he casually makes his way over to the web browser. He steps on the icon with a stretch of his foot and boots up the page to sticksfight.com. The page was pinned and bookmarked at this point for how much they all had to return to it.

The usual grey page popped in, though didn't seem to load all the way through. This didn't happen often, but he was used to it enough to know how to handle it.

Orange scales the left wall and climbs to the top of the webpage, hanging loosely in the corner. He draws his hand back and smacks the refresh button with a satisfying thwap of his palm. Dropping from his perch, he waits patiently for the webpage to reload, hands on his hips and slightly tapping his foot.

Instead of the usual room that Orange had grown used to, a small message appears. Orange eyes the text with a frustrated quirk to his expression.

[This page requires Flash Player version 23.0.0 or higher.]

Orange squints. He leaps up, back to the top of the website and hitting the refresh again, hoping it would disappear.

The message still displays. He pauses and swallows down some unnamed emotion, pointedly refusing to acknowledge what might have been fear that started to creep in.

Okay, Orange reasons logically against the alarm bells ringing in his head, _okay._ So he just has to get Flash Player. No big deal. He slides down the side of the screen until he's level with the button and pops it open in a new tab.

He hops over into the tab next door, hoping for some instruction or a download. Instead, another message shows on the screen that catches his lungs mid-breath.

[As of December 2020, Flash Player is no longer available. We apologize for the inconvenience.]

Orange blinks over the rush in his ears. He stares at the message, then back down at the date in the corner of the computer. December had passed just days ago. He looks back at the message. **[We apologize for the inconvenience.]** stares back at him tauntingly.

He barely hears himself say the words over the rush in his ears, "...Oh no."

He finds himself scrambling onto Alan's animation software in a panic, clambering up the timeline and skittering to a halt on the empty canvas. He sees his words appear above him in orange as he waves his arms frantically, "HELP!! ARE YOU THERE?"

Orange doesn't find any sign of a friendly cursor or any black text being typed back. Alan must still be sleeping, given the late hour. The desktop is all too quiet. Not something he's been used to. There's always noise from the others: the sizzle and bubble of Blue's cooking, or the sound of Red's numerous pets; the tick of Yellow's redstone repeaters, even Green's two hour note block jam sessions interrupting his sleep.

It's too quiet. He lets his flailing arms slowly fall to his side, letting his body collapse on the ground in a distressed heap, desolately succumbing to the silence.

Did he lose them again? He's lost them so many times before, he thanks everything in the world that he always managed to find them again, but this time... This time he wasn't sure. He was scared and alone and his friends' webpage had stopped and flash had become obsolete, and maybe his friends had become so too.

He curls in on himself on the empty software, feeling at a crushing loss. There's no one to fight, no avenging them in the off-chance they'd be brought back somehow, not this time. No person who had taken them away, just... happenstance. There's no anger, no righteous flame. It's all an empty cold creeping through his chest, frosting his heart over in a frozen chill.

He doesn't want to believe this was the last time he'd ever see them, but....

There wasn't... he didn't even get to say goodbye.

He squeezes himself tightly into a ball, scrubbing roughly at his face as he tries desperately not to sob.

They were gone. And he was alone.

...

"Oh, there you are, Orange! Why're you on the ground, were you taking a nap?"

Orange whips his head up off the ground so fast he gets lightheaded, startled and haphazardly flailing. He looks up to see... Red? Red was alive?!

Red seems frankly unaware of his confusion, simply grinning and waving. He turns his head and shouts over his shoulder, "Hey, guys, I found him!"

In a second, Yellow peeks his head around the side of the program. He spots Orange easily and gives a swift wave, "Hey! We were looking for you."

"We were going to try the parkour again, but Yellow saw you were missing." Red informs Orange matter-of-factly.

Blue files in after Yellow, seemingly taking stock of the situation. Green swings in from the Storage folder on his fishing line.

They were... here?

"How- Wh-?! Wait, but- you-?!" The sudden jump between grief and shock nearly gave Orange whiplash. He sputters, trying to find his words. They come out in an outburst, "Stickfight is down!"

They blink at him in confusion.

"Oh, it is? That sucks." Yellow comments casually, absentmindedly scratching the back of his head.

"...You okay?" Blue asks, voice tinted with concern, the first to notice how... _off_ Orange was acting.

"I... you guys _died._ And your webpage wouldn't reload without flash, so you... I thought it was permanent. I thought..." Orange trails off hollowly, squeezing his fists and staring at them. He's trembling.

 _"Oh."_ The realization fully dawns. The others look stricken with some mix of emotion, regret and sympathy and _"oh-we-messed-up."_

Green is quick to step over to him, settling in front of Orange and taking his hands. Orange grips back, squeezing like a reminder, finding himself tracing circles onto the back of them as assurance. They were here, they were _here._

Blue and Yellow come to rest on either side of him, with Yellow leaning against him, and Blue letting them both lean on him. Red stays standing, stooping overtop of Orange's head, looking at him upside down with a slight grin, as if trying to cheer him up, "Sorry, 'Range, we didn't mean to worry you."

"We were kind of expecting the fall damage though." Yellow points out dryly, patting Orange's arm, "That's why we reset our spawnpoints in the house."

"You did?" Orange asks, incredulously.

"I thought Green told you?" Yellow gestures towards Green.

"I thought Blue already did!" Green looks over at Blue.

"I thought Red said he would tell him." Blue shrugs vaguely.

They turn back to look at Red, who gives them all a sheepish look and quickly explains in a rush, "...I was going to, but he was sleeping and I didn't want to bother him because I knew he was up late animating last night, and then when he _did_ wake up, I got distracted because I needed to feed my pigs, they were really hungry and I had to go grab carrots and feed them and they were _so cute_ and I played with them until Green called me over for parkour so I didn't get to tell him until right now, but hey, Orange, we reset our spawnpoints in the house so don't worry!"

Red ends the blur of his speech with jazz hands and a deep inhale to catch his breath. The other sticks pause to look at him for a second, quiet right until the moment Orange bursts out laughing. He pulls them close, hiccuping through his laughter and voice slightly breaking, "I missed you all so much."

"Aw, it was only a few minutes!" Yellow laughs as his face gets squished against Orange's.

"We missed you too!" Red says immediately, nearly overlapping with Yellow's words. He wraps his arms around them, joining the impromptu hug.

"Sorry for the worry," Blue tucks an arm back around Orange, bracing his other arm on the ground and quietly letting the hug pile lean on him.

Green knocks his forehead with Orange, gentle as anything, slight grin on his face, "We'll be sure to let you know before we try anything death-defying next time."

Orange lets out a huff of laughter, tears still prickling at his eyes, "Thanks."

They stay on the canvas for a while, comfortably together. Not totally silent - it never is with them, and frankly Orange is quite keen on letting it stay that way.

Green still has his forehead pressed to Orange's, holding his hands loosely and humming something under his breath. Red sits with his back fitted against the group, tapping a casual beat for Green's song with both feet. Blue traces lines into the ground on his right, as if getting imaginary soil ready for planting, and Yellow is by his left, fidgeting with some kind of redstone gadget from a pocket somewhere.

It's left wordless, unspoken, but they're all waiting on his call. They're all endlessly patient, waiting for Orange for however long he needed. They'd all do so for each other, always reliably there when anyone needed help or comfort. Orange would do the same for each and any of them, but in this moment it was for him, and he could not be more grateful.

He takes what he deems an appropriate amount of time to collect himself. A deep breath in... and slowly out. His voice is still a little shaky, but he's better than he had been, "Okay."

The rest take pause in their actions and look up from their respective positions. Orange gingerly stretches from staying in place, repeating, almost like a reassurance to himself, "Okay. You guys are here."

Red is quick to give a quiet, emphatic, _"Yeah_ we are!!"

"Not getting rid of us that easy," Blue and Yellow both manage to say at the same time. They glance over at each other with similar pleased expressions and grin, bumping fists. Green shakes his head at them with a fond smile, before turning back.

"And you're okay?" He prompts, giving his hands a final squeeze.

"And I'm okay." Orange answers truthfully. He relaxes his hold on his hands.

The atmosphere feels much more casual after the confirmation. Yellow slides out of the hug and onto the floor in a lazy position. His head is still propped up by Orange's side, just so they still have contact, but he's mainly on the floor. He claps his hands together, "Next order of business: You said sticksfight was down?" 

"I think it is. It runs on Flash Player, and that's discontinued now, so..." Orange furrows his brows, trailing off.

"Huh. That sucks." Red mentions, cheerfully blunt. He quickly bounces up, rocking onto the tips of his feet and pointing towards the browser, "Let's go see!"

Blue blinks, then shrugs, standing with a stretch, "Guess we could say our goodbyes to the place."

Blue offers a hand to a still-sitting Green, who grasps at it trustingly and pulls himself up. Green offers his free hand to Orange, who does the same. Once upright, they don't let go of each other, fully content to hold hands in a three-stick chain.

Yellow, still lying on the floor, stretches his limbs out on the animation board like a particularly content cat. "I don't know, Orange might've been onto something. This canvas is surprisingly comfortable."

"Aw, come on, Yellow!" Red sprints over and hefts a surprised Yellow up in a bridal carry and swoops him away with a laugh and a twirl. Green, Blue and Orange exchange grins as Yellow yelps and Red starts off towards the browser. They follow behind Red's triumphant march with a wriggling, and only mildly protesting Yellow in his arms.

Red, still easily carrying Yellow, swing-kicks the back of his heel down on the browser icon in the taskbar. The window pops open with a click.

The sticks all pile into the window. Red gently puts Yellow back on his feet. They take a look around. Green and Red investigate together, boosting each other up the side scroller. Yellow examines the Flash Player message and controls with a squint, but even with tinkering, can't seem to get anything working. Blue stands with Orange at the bottom of the screen, watching the others and occasionally shifting the bottom scroller as needed.

Eventually, they all gather back at the bottom. The page remains dull grey, and the message continues to display, requiring the outdated plug-in they didn't have. They sit somberly at the bottom of the screen together. Orange rests in the center, Red on his right and Green on his left. Yellow sits by the left side of the screen next to Red, and Blue tails the opposite end, shoulder-to-shoulder with Green.

There's a brief moment of silence. It feels like some form of mourning.

"Are you going to miss this place?" Orange asks the group.

"Well... It was our world for a long time. It's hard _not_ to miss something like that." Yellow admits. He leans against the side of the browser, tucking in his legs.

"We did so much here." Green turns behind him and presses a palm against the wall of the empty, grey webpage, "Grew up and grew together. This place was all we knew for the longest time. It's where we met you for the first time! Losing it all, everything that came with this place is... it's tough."

"Lotta memories." Blue comments, patting the ground fondly.

Orange isn't sure what to do, what he could say. He takes a breath and looks at each of them, picking his words out one by one, "It's... hard. Losing something you knew for so long. Sorry about your home."

Blue offers a sad smile back. Yellow gives a soft hum as he nods, and Green pats his knee in thanks.

Red chimes in with a cheerful note despite the mood, "Hey, no worries. We have a new home now!"

Orange nods slowly, with a half shrug, "Yeah, I... I guess our Minecraft house is fine, I-"

Yellow interrupts him, leaning over and giving his arm a gentle punch, "No, you doofus, not our house, our home! We found a new home."

"Our new home with each other, and with you." Green nudges him.

Blue leans into Green, smiling as he adds, "It's always our home wherever we all can be together."

Orange has to take a second to process that, feeling warmth abruptly sparking and flooding his chest, feeling tears building at the corners of his eyes again as he laughs wetly, "I- ha, I found my home here with you all too. I'm... I'm so glad you're all here."

Green laughs, light and good-natured, "Alright, Mr. Cheesy and Sweet, bring it in." He stands and pulls Orange and Blue with him, hugging them both and trying to get Yellow and Red into the mess that were their group hugs. He doesn't have to try very hard; they're quick to join the secure embrace.

"I love you guys!" Red yells abruptly before smushing his face into Yellow's arm and nuzzling closer into the hug. Yellow's laughter rings pleasantly in Orange's ear and rocks the group in a swaying motion.

They all follow suit after Red, a spoken chorus of warm and meaningful reciprocation, love given and received. Blue keeps their rocking steady, and Green reaches an arm over Blue's head to wipe at a tear from Orange's eye, shooting him a soft look and a smile.

Orange gives one back, feeling the solid weight of his friends around him. On the greyed webpage, he feels such a lightness and fullness in his heart, and he closes his eyes and squeezes tightly around his friends, his family, his home, "I love you all too."

**Author's Note:**

>  _"...Can we go play Yellow's parkour again?"_  
>  "No."
> 
> Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! I'd love to read your thoughts if you'd like to leave a comment! Check me out on my [tumblr](https://kellystar321.tumblr.com/) or on my [twitter](https://twitter.com/mspa_reading) if you want! I love you!


End file.
